Did the same move a year ago, also to a CCRC, moving from the NY/NJ area to Washington State. We started cleaning out as soon as we made the decision. And you will be surprised to find how much you can do w/o, especially when you find out what the move will cost: in our case, after all that cleaning out, $11,000! You (and most of us) exemplify the saying that nature abhors a vacuum. We have the space & we fill it; now we have to unfill it.

Try not to cling to the past; you are moving to a new future where you will make many new memories.

In reality, there are very few material things that are truly meaningful and worth saving. What is valuable is the EXPERIENCE and the MEMORIES.

If your kids have not used any of the "stuff" they have stored at your house, they don't need it. Tell them to sort through it, give it away, take it the dump, or take it home - make a deadline and hold firm to it.

Photos and sentimental papers, like legal docs, can be digitized. Get a family member to do it, or pay a neighbor some spending money to digitize it for you (but only after you sort through it and carefully label how you want the files titled; otherwise you'll never be able to find anything again).

Edit the 'keepsakes' down. All of us have way too much stuff and most of it is out of sight, out of mind. The older I get, the more I realize I don't even really look at this stuff when it's out, it just catches dust.

Call a good full-service RE agent and ask for a referral to an 'estate sale' vendor. When my MIL sold her house of 38 years, we got her house emptied and moved her within five weeks' time. I'm still amazed it went so smoothly.

We did the following:
- Contacted the relatives and friends to ask if they wanted any of the furniture. To our surprise, one of her relatives in Canada was eager to pick up quite a few items. They drove a rental truck all the way down the West Coast to haul them away.
- Told her to decide what she truly wanted to keep. But she was restricted to one room's worth (she was taking over the front bedroom of our very small cottage). Even so, there were things she brought that went unused, such as extra bath towels. Anything that wasn't used after two years, was given away in our periodic donations to charity.
- The RE agent referred us to an estate sales vendor. They loved all the tsotchkes and stuff, and she made $800 off the sale. The money was unimportant; what was important was that it was a completely 'clean sweep'. We piled it up, they took it away, and we didn't have to deal with it any longer. Hands-down, it was the smartest thing we did during the whole process.

To this day my MIL misses her house - in the sense of the happy life she had when her DH was alive - but she doesn't miss the extra 'things'. She still has the items that are important to her (and she has a few new fun things she's bought or people have gifted her with), she has a new routine to keep her modestly busy, and she knows she made the right decision to move forward rather than staying put.

HTH!

I can certainly relate to what you are feeling. We have been in our same home since the late 80's and have accumulated way too much STUFF. My husband and I are both sentimental (especially with the belongings of our loved ones who have passed), therefore we not only have our things, but their's also.
I have finally gotten to the point that I know I need to get rid of some things so that I can enjoy the space that I have in the house. My 19 year old daughter was killed in 1998 and I still have room as she left it. I am taking pictures of many things including clothing, and giving them to others who may need the items or want them. I find that pictures help ease the temptation to keep. You can still hold on to the memory, but discard the item.
I wish you luck, because I know it's hard. I also tell myself that when my husband and I are gone, I really don't want to burden my son with getting rid of all of our stuff which I know he will probably just want to keep a fraction of. I want to discard as I please while I have some say in the matter.
Keep us posted!

Imscattered - There are two forums you should look into here - Smaller Homes and Organizing The Home. If you search through them or just come out and ask, there is a wealth of thought and help in just what you are facing. Both forums are fairly active, especially when a new challenge is presented :-)